Work begins on huge distribution center south of Dallas in Wilmer

January 7, 2014

Steve Brown
Dallas Morning News

Construction has begun south of Dallas on one of the largest distribution buildings planned for North Texas.

Panattoni Construction is building the 1.4 million-square-foot warehouse on the west side of Interstate 45 at Mars Road in Wilmer. The construction site is just across the road from Whirlpool Corp.’s 1 million-square-foot regional distribution center.
 

Real estate brokers say the industrial building being constructed by Panattoni is fully leased to consumer products giant Procter & Gamble. The big warehouse deal has been in the works for several months.

The project is part of a venture that Panattoni has with the California State Teachers Retirement System to develop warehouse projects around the country.

Panattoni officials have so far declined to talk about the project. But building permits posted on the construction site confirm that the warehouse will total 1.4 million square feet. Wilmer city officials say the development will be finished by late this year.

“They’ve indicated that it will house roughly 500 full- and part-time employees,” said city manager Denny Wheat, who says it will be the largest industrial building in Wilmer.

Wheat said he has heard that Procter & Gamble Co. will occupy the building but that there has been no formal confirmation of the tenant.  “It’s being called Project Sunrise,” he said. “It’s hard to hide something like that” now that construction is underway.

Real estate brokers say the Dallas-area project is part of an effort by Procter & Gamble to realign its nationwide distribution operations. Representatives of the Ohio-based manufacturer would not discuss the Wilmer project.
 

“As a matter of policy, P&G does not comment on rumors and speculation about our business,” spokesman Jeff LeRoy said.

Jones Lang LaSalle has been representing Procter & Gamble in its Dallas-area real estate negotiations.

The new warehouse is just south of Union Pacific Railroad’s busy intermodal shipping yard on I-45. It’s in the same area where Ace Hardware is building a regional warehouse.  The Panattoni warehouse in Wilmer is even larger than the 1.2 million-square-foot regional distribution center being completed in Lancaster for Quaker Sales & Distribution Inc. And it’s bigger than Amazon.com’s new 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse north of Fort Worth in the AllianceTexas development.